Having made an indelible mark in the picture book world—he won a Caldecott for The Hello, Goodbye Window and Caldecott Honors for Yo! Yes?—Chris Raschka has penned his first middle-grade novel, Seriously, Norman! Out from Scholastic’s Michael di Capua Books in October, the book’s plot will speak to kids—and parents—skeptical of the often daunting rigmarole surrounding school admission tests.
After Norman performs miserably on a test for admittance to a good school, his parents hire a tutor. “The tutor is very eccentric, and Norman is convinced he’s out to ruin his life when [the tutor] assigns him to read the dictionary,” says Raschka. “But the dictionary is somewhat magical and gives Norman clues about his father, who turns out to be involved with nefarious people.” Other bizarre assignments from the tutor follow, and eventually Norman travels to Europe and Singapore, where his newly acquired knowledge enables him to rescue his father from kidnappers.
“I don’t know any Normans,” says Raschka of the inspiration for this story. “But as I observed my own son taking a test similar to the one Norman took, I was struck by the absurdity of some of the things we put our children through. In the novel, I tried to balance several things: how absurd adults can be, how funny kids can be, and how much magic exists all around us in the real world.”
Raschka notes that creating a story without pictures was “hugely challenging, partly because with this novel, I couldn’t see the whole thing at once. With picture books, you can, and you can see where the problems are.” A novel is more difficult, he explains, since “it exists between what is written and what is still in my head. Now that I’ve reread and rewritten this book many times, I can see the whole thing. It is satisfying to create this big, lumpy thing and then slowly shape it into something that works.”
A veteran BEA attendee, the Upper West Side resident arrives at the convention by bicycle, his self-described “preferred mode of transportation. In this case, all I have to do is roll down the river.” He says he’s happy “to wander around and look at all the amazing people and booths—I especially love the booths of the map publishers. I find BEA is always like a big fog of a party—a long, long party. I always feel slightly off balance, which one should at a good party!”
Raschka’s fans will find him signing ARCs of Seriously, Norman! today, 2:30–3:30, at Table 28.